Frater Ron Gayler currently resides in Youngsville, LA. He was born and raised in Rock Port, Mo. and graduated from Rock Port High School. In the fall of 1962 he began his freshman year at NWMSU.
In the summer of 1963, Ron was recruited by TKE active Gilbert Moorman for a summer job selling bibles door to door in Texas along with Tekes Jim Hawkins and Ron Zimmerman. The following Fall, he pledged TKE (his pledge father was Al Hague) and lived in the House at 222 W. Cooper in the spring of 1964. Ron continued to sell bibles in Kentucky and North Carolina the following two summers. During his junior and senior years Ron worked in a meat packing plant during the summers and holidays.
After graduation in 1968 (B.A. History) Ron entered Army Infantry Officer Candidate School at Ft. Benning, GA. Following completion of OCS, Ron entered Army flight school and in 1970 started flying helicopters as an infantry captain in Vietnam for the First Cavalry Division. After his Army discharge, Ron spent a year as a crop duster near Rock Port and in 1973 went to work for PHI in Louisiana. He flew helicopters in support of the offshore oil and gas industry in the Gulf of Mexico, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Somalia. After twenty five years of work Ron retired from PHI in 1998 as a regional manager with well over 10,000 flight hours.
Ron has a son, Randy, by his first wife Sally. He and wife Barbara, a speech pathologist, have been married for 34 years and have two daughters: Erin, who lives in Austin, TX, and Jessica, who lives in Youngsville. Both daughters are LSU graduates so Ron is an ardent supporter of both the NWMSU Bearcats and the LSU Tigers.
Since retiring, Ron does marketing and recruiting for an international company and plays a lot of golf. Frater Gayler cites a common thread that has run through his TKE experience, military service and civilian life: A brotherhood that was shaped in the TKE house. This bond has proved to be a cornerstone for success.